What Is Left
by Marissalyn
Summary: Laura is forgetting who she is, Carmilla is desperately trying to save her, LaF is slowly losing their mind pushing themselves to the limits of trying to be the best they can be without their support system, Perry is gone, Kirsch is dead, JP has disappeared, and the Dean is back and her weapon is a resurrected blood thirsty Danny Lawrence.
1. Prologue

center "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!" (words said to be inscribed over the gates of hell)

-Dante Alighieri /center

centerXXX/center

Sometimes even the strongest minds can't anticipate the unexpected.

Sometimes it only takes a single person to change everything in only a matter of moments.

Sometimes it is just simply too late.

Sometimes while you are focused on one thing, an entirely different thing is happening right beneath your feet.

Sometimes choosing the greater good will only push you further towards the greater evil.

Sometimes the things around you will make you someone you're not.

Sometimes there isn't enough time to chase back the clock and choose differently.

Sometimes you just can't fix anything at all.

Sometimes you lose.

centerXXX/center

Dead.

They were all dead, Laura, LaF, Mother, everyone.

What else was there to do but open the gate? Let what's behind it swallow you and the rest of the world whole. Maybe a fresh start was what you all needed. A fresh start that mother wouldn't be in control of, one where you wouldn't have to become a monster, a beginning that wouldn't end like this.

The cemetery was strewn with dead bodies. Blood splattered on the ground and headstones. Smoke coming from a pile of burning flesh and bone.

Walking on a broken ankle, you sucked it up and limped over to where the gate stood, just waiting to be opened.

Stepping over dead bodies and refusing to look at Laura's lifeless eyes, you licked the blood from off your lip and stopped right in front of the gate.

All you had to do now was open it.

centerXXX/center

Carmilla gasped, sitting up in a cold sweat and breathing heavy.

Quickly looking over at Laura sleeping across the room on a pile of old blankets, she let out a sigh of relief.

She wasn't dead. None of them were dead.

This could only mean one thing though.

Carmilla has had these dreams before. Only one person could get inside her head like this, make her have dreams like this, dreams that would soon become real if she didn't try and stop them.

Lilita Morgan was alive.


	2. Atlas

Legend has it that there used to be a titan named Atlas who along with his brother Menoetius sided with the titans in the war against the Olympians. When the titans were defeated, many of them including Menoetius was confined to Tartarus, the deep and torturous prison for the titans. Zeus had other plans for Atlas though, condemning him to hold the weight of the heavens on his shoulders to prevent him from ever reconciling with his brother again.

centerXXX/center

"Laura, you need to eat something."

Laura rolled over to face the wall, pulling the ratty old blanket further up her shoulders to try and hide beneath it.

Carmilla sighed, sitting down against the wall beside the doorway. "None of what's happened is your fault." She knew she was lying, but she had to at least try.

Laura rolled her eyes, still refusing to look away from the wall. "You and I both know that's a lie."

Carmilla stared at Laura's back, pulling her knees up against her chest to rest her forearms on. "You can't just lay her and wait to die."

Laura rolled over then to face her, "Why not? Isn't that what I deserve? I killed him Carm, I don't deserve to move on from that."

Looking away from Laura and towards the corner of the small room, Carmilla shook her head. She was starting to wish Laura hadn't saved her at all. She wouldn't have to feel guilty if she had died. She made Laura do crazy things like kill someone, and in return she couldn't even get her to eat. "Please eat." She whispered, her eyes moving back to Laura's face. "This isn't over and you know it." She stood up slowly, "Who knows what's been going on up there on campus, but from what it seems we left the university in shambles. The Corvae can't be doing what we thought they would."

Laura shook her head, "I'm not doing it. Every time I try to come out on top I just end up crushed beneath the heap." Her gaze wavered, "Besides, it's not like anything I've been doing has done a lick of good, just like you said."

Carmilla sighed, biting her tongue. She deserved that, for her words to be thrown back in her face.

Laura looked at the various types of chocolate and reluctantly picked one up, "I will settle for eating something though, if only so that you'll stop nagging me about it and giving me your sad cat eyes."

"I do inot/i have sad cat eyes."

Laura fought a smile as she took a bite into her chocolate.

Carmilla rolled her eyes and left the room, pleased to know that Laura was finally relenting in eating something. She went back to wandering the stacks in the library, still reeling from everything- her almost execution, Laura saving her, Danny dying, Mattie dying, not to mention the dream she had the night before.

Lilita Morgan was alive and Carmilla needed to figure out a way to get one step ahead of her before anything too serious happened. Not that she would know much, hell she didn't even know what body her mother was inhabiting. What poor soul was she possessing now?

LaFontaine was hunched over a pile of books reading. Carmilla had come to them early that morning to tell them about the dream she had, asking them to look into the history of the seven gates of hell. So far there had been nothing.

"She has to be protecting somebody." LaF said when they caught sight of Carmilla making her way over.

"Who, mother?"

LaF nodded, "Yes, I mean, there has to be a reason she is the way she is. Usually a person is the reason behind it." They shifted in their chair, clearly growing excited with their research. "She originally wanted the anglerfish dead, Perry told us that. The anglerfish was the light god and it was protecting the gate that didn't open until both Mattie and Vordenberg were dead. We were never told the gate opened, but I figured the ominous rumbling of the ground was answer enough."

"What does this have to do with my mother protecting somebody though?" Carmilla asked, confused.

"Well that gate was the first of seven gates. Clearly the dean wanted it open for a reason, to open all of them. So I did some research with what I already knew, and it turns out that each gate is protected by a different deity, along with it being linked to someone meaningful to the person wanting to open the gates."

"So you're telling me my mother is going to open all seven gates and kill all of these deities and other people who are linked to it, because of what? A person she may or may not be in love with?" Carmilla scoffed, "You don't know Lilita like I know her, she has a heart of stone."

LaF shrugged, "I wouldn't put love past her, you of all people should know what it's like to feel resurrected by it. Maybe she isn't in love with the person, but think about it. Have you ever heard her mention someone, a name to someone you may or may not have met yourself?"

Carmilla shook her head before thinking it over. Mother had never been much for affection, but she did remember something. The first couple of times she had heard it she remembered questioning if it was a name at all, but then she thought of her own name and didn't give it a second thought.

"Uranus."

LaF raised a brow, "Like the planet?"

Carmilla shook her head, "No, it was some guy she talked about from time to time. It was always in passing, never specific, unless she was drunk. If you got her drinking she would talk about a man she loved more than anything she has ever had in her life, and they couldn't be together because he already sworn himself to another woman."

LaF tapped their chin, deep in thought, "Maybe it was a code name."

Carmilla shrugged, "Whatever it is, she's got to be getting something out of it. She wouldn't be protecting this thing for nothing." After all, she only ever looked out for herself.

centerXXX/center

centeriDecember 28th, 1698/i/center

You should have seen him coming, he had been right behind you. He was the one who greeted you when you stepped out of your carriage and walked you into the home.

He was the one that offered you your first glass of champagne that night and asked you out into the garden to talk.

You figured he was interested in marrying you. Most of the men at these parties were now that you were of age and your father was willing to negotiate.

You didn't expect him to stab you while he followed you out towards the rose bushes though. You didn't realize he would slowly lower your body to the ground and whisper an apology into the night about how it wasn't your fault you were the Count's daughter, that you were the closest thing to his heart.

While you were laying on the ground, waiting for death, the sound of his retreating heels scuffing along the brick, you didn't know someone would find you before you were gone.

"I thought I smelled blood." A woman's voice spoke from somewhere above you. Lowering herself so that you could see her face, she pulled you into her lap, moving your hair off of your shoulders. "We can't have the Countess of Karnstein dying at such a young age now should we?"


End file.
